1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cartridge for contact terminals and a semiconductor device socket detachably provided with such a cartridge.
2. Description of the Related Art
Semiconductor devices to be mounted to electronic equipments or others are subjected to various tests prior to being mounted so that latent defects thereof are removed. Such tests are carried out via a semiconductor device socket on which the semiconductor device to be tested is detachably mounted.
The semiconductor device sockets subjected to such tests are generally referred to as IC sockets disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. 2004-71240, 2002-202344 and 2003-045594, which are arranged on a printed wiring board having an input/output section supplied with a predetermined test voltage and outputting signals representing abnormalities, such as a short-circuit, of the semiconductor devices to be tested.
Such an IC socket incorporates a contact terminal group in the interior of a socket body, for electrically connecting the input/output section in the printed wiring board with the terminal group of the semiconductor device. If a stable electric connection becomes difficult due to any fault or the end of life span of the contact terminal, such a contact terminal group is exchanged to a fresh one. To facilitate the operation for exchanging such contact terminals, a socket block having an accommodating portion for the semiconductor device and a plurality of contact pins are proposed, as shown, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-243794. The socket block is disposed in the interior of the socket body of a predetermined type to be easily detachable.
In this socket block, when the used contact pins are exchanged to fresh ones, the socket block is initially removed from the interior of the socket body as a whole, and then the respective contact pins are simply detached from the socket blocks and easily replaced to fresh ones.